


The Beginning

by anarchychaos



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Middle School, M/M, Make a Man Out of You (Mulan Song), Pre-Relationship, steve and bucky are both small and oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 04:24:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10506270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchychaos/pseuds/anarchychaos
Summary: Bucky finally decides to talk to the kid in the nurse's office, and meets the snarky Steve Rogers





	

“You should talk to him,” Natasha prodded, once again, as Bucky stared at the small, blue-eyed boy who occupied most of Bucky’s thoughts.

“I don’t have a good conversation starter,” Bucky insisted, hefting his backpack.

“Bucky. Whenever you see him, he’s in the nurse's office, and you have a free period right now. Go ask him why he keeps getting black eyes and bloody noses, or I will break your nose, and then force you in there. Either way, you're talking to him.”

Bucky sighed in defeat, and started making his way towards the nurse's office, practically feeling Natasha’s smirk. He knocked lightly on the door, and the nurse ushered him in. “I-uh. I have a free period, and I was wondering if you needed anything.” 

The nurse regarded him knowingly, and motioned to the other boy in the room. “That’s Steve. If you could just talk to him…?”

Bucky nodded gratefully. He was buying her like, twelve gift cards. 

“Hey, man, I keep seeing you in here. What gives?” Bucky asked, sitting down next to Steve.

“I’ve never seen you,” Steve said, looking up from where he sat, nursing a bloody nose. Bucky heart thumped. Nobody should look that cute while holding a bloody tissue to their face. 

“Uh. I mean I haven’t been like, following you or anything I just-” Bucky stuttered, heart falling. Stupid stupid stupid, now Steve probably thought he was weird or-

“Nah, its cool,” Steve said, interrupting his thought. “I’m Steve,” He said, a glint in his eye.

“Bucky,” Bucky said, grinning lopsidedly. “So, how come you keep getting hurt?”

“People keep picking on others smaller than them.” Steve said, shrugging.

“So you just step in?”

“Yeah. Somebody has to,” 

“Nice. So who makes sure they don’t kill you?”

“Uh. Peggy, Peggy Carter? She used to help me out, before she left,” 

Peggy Carter had been a witty girl, visiting her father, who had moved to America after him and Peggy’s mother had gotten a nasty divorce when Peggy was young. She had a clipped British accent, nice hair, and the heart of every boy in the school.

“Yeah, she was cool. D’ya miss her?”

Steve shrugged. “I guess. I’m happy for her, though. She called me a while ago and told me she got a new boyfriend in London. Breaking the news to Sam was awful,”

Bucky grinned. “So, do you always save people, or do guys come after you, too?”

“Brock Rumlow and his friend, Ward like to gang up on me,”

“Why?” Bucky asked, getting angry.

Steve shrugged. “‘M smaller than them, easier to go after,” 

Bucky wrinkled up his nose distastefully. Ward and Brock had given Becca a hard time in a couple of instances, but had stayed far away from her when Bucky showed up and helped her give Brock two black eyes and break Ward’s nose.

“I beat them up once,” Bucky blurted, before quickly glancing over to make sure the nurse hadn’t heard.

“Really?” Steve asked, blue eyes brightening. “Why?”

Bucky shifted towards him, and started retelling the story about his and Becca’s fight, and, by the end, Steve’s nose had stopped bleeding. 

Steve held the bloody tissue away from his face, before dabbing it onto his nose a couple of times just to be sure. 

He grinned at Bucky, before walking over to the nurse to tell her that his bleeding had stopped. She double checked him for any other bleeding or bruising, before sending him and Bucky to the bathroom so that Steve could wipe the dried blood off his face.

“So, who exactly gave you the nosebleed?”

“Uh,” Steve gurgled from under the sink, where he was getting blood out of his eyebrow (Bucky wasn’t sure how it had gotten all the way up there, but it must have been possible). Steve stood up, and dried off his face. “Actually, this time it wasn’t on purpose,”

Bucky quirked an eyebrow, and Steve continued. “Natasha Romanoff was flirting with Maria during a basketball game, and Maria accidentally made a pass to the sidelines. I can’t tell if she was embarrassed because she hit me, or because Natasha asked her out during free throws a few minutes later,”

Bucky’s eyes widened, and he shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t think Nat was actually gonna ask Maria Hill out. Let alone during a friggin basketball game. You ready?”

Steve nodded, and they headed back to the nurse's office, waiting for Nurse Sharon to give Steve the okay to leave. 

The waited patiently behind Bruce Banner, who had been pretty green all day, and had, if Bucky’s eavesdropping skills were still intact, just vomited in the science labs. All over his best friend, Tony Stark, who was sitting in a pair of borrowed clothes, looking extremely traumatized. 

Steve made a sympathetic noise when Bruce rushed back into the small bathroom in the back of the nurse's office, and Bucky couldn’t help but wonder if Steve himself got sick often. 

“Alright, Steve, let’s have a look,” Sharon bent down to see Steve’s face better, and poked at his face for a few seconds. “Okay, there’s no swelling that I can see, so I don’t think it’s broken, but you will have some bruising on your nose and cheek. What class do you have?”

“PE,” Steve reported, scrunching up his face, and then wincing when it hurt his nose. 

Sharon turned to him. “And you, Bucky?”

“I have a free period,”

The nurse nodded, and turned to her computer, where she clicked around while talking to them. “Well, I think Steve should head home and rest up a bit,”

“I could walk him home?” Bucky offered without thinking, feeling incredibly hopeful.

“Well, seeing as you don’t have anywhere you need to be, and the school days almost over, I don’t see why not. Steve, would that be okay?” She looked toward Steve, but Bucky could tell that she could see right through him.

Steve shrugged “Sure,” 

“Alright then, you two can head out. Steve’s already been signed out, I called him mom. Bucky, why don’t you let your mom know that you're leaving school, and I’ll get everything squared away for you,”

Steve turned and began walking out the door, and Bucky quickly mouthed ‘thank you’ to the nurse, before receiving a wink, and hurrying after Steve.

“They gave you a free period right before you leave?” Steve asked after they exited the school and Bucky texted his mom.

“Yeah, I have no idea why. The school system makes no sense.”

Steve snorted. “You got that right. I got suspended for wearing a skirt to school one time. Which was dumb, since it was spirit week, and we were supposed to dress like our favorite book character. I was supposed to be Dorothy,”

Bucky couldn’t help but scoff at that. “Really? You dressed up as Dorothy when-”

“I swear to god, if you tell me that I shouldn’t have dressed up as a girl and gone for something more manly, I will punch you in the face,”

“Good, because I was gonna say that you should’ve gone as Hermione. Or, like Artemis or a Jane Austen character, something!”

Steve looked at him quizzically. “You read Jane Austen?”

Bucky blushed “...maybe?” That was a fact he didn’t like other people knowing. His mom hand handed him Pride & Prejudice one day, out of the blue, and ever since he had been in love with the author. 

“My mom reads it to me whenever I get to sick to do anything but sit in bed,” Steve said, pushing Bucky a little to get him to take the right turn. 

“You get sick often?”

“Yep,” Steve said, avoiding Bucky’s eyes. Bucky nodded, and they staying silent for a few moments, before Steve spoke up again. “This is me,” motioning to a set of small blue condos

Bucky felt his face fall, before he looked up to Steve, and forced a smile on his face. “Do you think we could hang out sometime?”

Steve blinked. “Well-I mean-You could come in now. My mom won’t mind, she freaks out whenever I have friends over-I don’t have many-,”

He trailed off, scratching at the back of his neck, looking incredibly awkward.

Bucky smiled, real this time, and he raised his eyebrows at Steve again, who reddened, and stepped aside, motioning for Bucky to come in. 

<><><><><>

Bucky walked into the small condo, and immediately felt at home. He glanced down to see Steve taking off his shoes, and following suite. “You want a snack?” Steve asked, and pulled open the fridge. 

“Sure!” Bucky said, jumping up to sit at the counter. 

Steve pulled out some orange juice, and began pouring glasses for them both, and Bucky hopped down, and walked around the island to Steve. “Can I help?”

Steve motioned to the freezer. “There’s some homemade strawberry popsicles in there, could you take out on for each of us? Are you allergic to anything?”

Bucky opened the freezer and fished out two of the popsicles, before turning back to Steve, and following him to the back porch. They sat down and Bucky handed one to Steve, who promptly dunked it into his orange juice. Bucky looked at him quizzically, before Steve pulled it out and licked off the orange juice, smiling at Bucky. “I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid. It’s pretty good,”

Bucky quirked his eyebrow suspiciously, but tried it anyways. Wasn’t too bad, actually. He told Steve as such, who grinned, and waggled his eyebrows. “Told you so,”

They sat in comfortable silence, until Bucky heard the house phone ringing inside. He turned to look at Steve, wondering if he was going to get up to answer it. Steve seemed oblivious. Then Bucky noticed the small flesh colored hearing aid in Steve’s ear. Huh. Bucky bumped his shoulders into Steve, and, once Steve had looked at him, began to speak. “Your phone is ringing, inside,” He watched Steve’s eyes focus on his lips, eyes scrunching in concentration, before he jumped up, and ran inside. 

“Hey, ma,” 

Bucky followed him inside, and took in the empty glasses and popsicle sticks.

“Sorry, ma. No, I’m doing okay. I’ve got a friend over,” Steve glanced over and smiled at Bucky, who smiled back, before turning and putting the glasses in the sink, and searching for a garbage can.

“Yeah. His name is Bucky, he was keeping me company in the nurse's office and decided to walk home with me. Yeah, he texted his mom before we left,”

Bucky found the garbage can and deposited the popsicle sticks, smiling to himself. 

“Alright. I’ll ask. Love you,” Steve hung up, and turned to Bucky, who pushed the smile off his face. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

Bucky shrugged. “Sure, I’ll text my mom,” He pulled out his phone and typed out a quick message. Bucky’s phone was just a flip phone, contrary to the phone Natasha had, a fancy Iphone that had convinced Bucky that her dad was in the Russian Mafia.

Steve leaned over. “How can you text so fast?” he asked, genuinely curious.

Bucky grinned, and shrugged. “I just can. Lotsa practice. I can do it with my eyes closed, too,” He closed his eyes, and continued typing out his message.

Steve’s eyes widened, and he laughed in surprise. “Huh,” Bucky sent off the message, before opening his eyes, smiling back. 

“So, what do you want to do?” Steve asked, and Bucky shrugged. 

“What do you usually do?”

Steve scrunched up his face. “Nothing interesting. I draw a lot, and read sometimes,”

“What kinda stuff do you like to draw?” 

“I can show you, if you wanted?” 

Bucky nodded, and followed Steve up the stairs. They ended up in a small, but comfortable room. It’s walls were covered in posters dedicated to various things, from timelines of when certain artists made famous pieces, to dedications to LGBTQ+ icons and supporters. Steve had an entire wall covered in (hand painted) quotes, along with two Black Lives Matter posters. One on his wall, the second taped to the window, facing outwards, so that it was pointing directly at the next door neighbors window. 

“Dude, your room is awesome!” Bucy exclaimed, looking around happily. 

“Thanks. Most people think its kinda dumb looking. My neighbor does,”

Bucky quirked ay eyebrow, and pointed towards the window. “That next door neighbor?”

Steve smiled “Yeah. One of the most racist bigots I've ever met. My poster points right at his bedroom window, and he can’t ignore it because his cat broke his blinds. I love that cat,”

Bucky smiled back at Steve, and plops down onto Steve’s bed after Steve tells him to sit down.

They sat and talked for awhile, and Bucky ignored the butterflies in his stomach. After they had talked themselves into starvation, they ventured down to the kitchen again, in search of cookies, only to be caught by Sarah Rogers when she came home early. Steve had Bucky had both froze, before Bucky had walked over to Ms. Rogers and stuck his hand out, introducing himself as politely as he could.

“Nice to meet you, Bucky,” she had said as shook his hand. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Would you like to stay forever?” Steve piped up behind her, before looking like he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Bucky looked at him for a few seconds, before smiling broadly.

“Did you just reference Mulan?”

Sarah Rogers and Bucky had burst out laughing after Steve nodded sheepishly, and after he had calmed down, Bucky had slung an arm around Steve’s shoulders and said. “Dude, I love that movie, but that was the most random thing ever,”

Steve stuck out his tongue, and Ms. Rogers gave him a stern look, before scooping him up into a hug, and then setting him down to look at his injuries. 

“Who was it this time?” She asked, after everything proved satisfactory. 

“It was an accident this time. Natasha started flirting with Maria, and Maria got flustered,”

“So she hit you in the face?”

“What? No-it happened during a basketball scrimmage, and so Maria accidentally threw it at me instead of Gigi,”

“Ah. Which one’s Gigi again?”

“Gamora? She’s the one Peter Quill has a crush on,”

Ms. Rogers nodded, and began to take out fixings for salad, listening as Steve recounted his day. As Sarah made dinner she would ask Bucky and Steve questions, and Bucky was surprised to find that Sarah was caught up in all of the school’s gossip. Including the stuff involving Bucky.

At one point, Sarah Rogers turned, and, after double checking that Bucky was in fact staying for dinner, began asking Bucky about Natasha. “So, Bucky, how long has Natasha wanted to ask Maria out?”

Bucky blanched at the question, before answering as truthfully as he could. “I’m not entirely sure. All of a sudden, she just started getting really nervous about going to basketball practice. It didn’t even make sense, she loves basketball, you know? That and dance are her two favorite things in life. But, eventually she wasn’t so nervous, and when I went to one of her games I realized it was because she had covered all of her nerves in charisma and flirtation. She wouldn’t shut up about Maria after I asked her about it. Now she’s gonna be as smug as ever,” 

Ms. Rogers smiled, and sent Steve out to set the table. “Now, how did you meet Steve?”

Bucky frowned. He had already heard Steve recount that moment to her a few minutes ago, but he answered anyways. “I just met him today. I went in to the nurse's office to help out, and she just asked me to talk to Steve,”

“Oh!” Ms. Rogers looked genuinely surprised. “I thought you two had met before. Steve talks about you quite a lot, you know,”

“He does?” Bucky began to ask, but was interrupted by Steve walking over.

“Who talks about who a lot?” He asked, plopping down next to Bucky.

“Oh, it’s nothing, dear,” She said, winking at Bucky. 

Bucky smiled, and Steve frowned a bit, before poking him in the side. “You should sleep over tonight,”

Bucky shrugged. It was a Friday night, so he didn’t have to school to get to or anything, it should work out. “Sure! I would need to talk to my mom, though,”

Ms. Rogers nodded, looking to Bucky. “Do you have her number? I should talk to her as well,” 

“Yup!” Bucky said. “Should I call her right now?”

Ms. Rogers nodded, and wiped her hands off on a hand towel while Bucky dialed and listened to it ringing. “Hey, mom. Yeah, I’m fine. Steve wants me to sleep over, and Ms. Rogers wants to talk to you really quick. Okay. How’s Becca? Did she get home okay? Good. Tell her I’ll help her make cupcakes after I get home tomorrow. Alright. Love you too. Here’s Ms. Rogers,”

Bucky handed the phone to Sarah, before he and Steve sat and watched her with hopeful eyes, listening to her side of the phone conversation. Soon, she hung up and handed the phone back to Bucky. 

“Bucky can spend the night, and Mrs. Barnes is going to be here for breakfast. Now, let’s eat!”

Dinner went by quickly, and Bucky and Steve ate everything on their plates, along with a few hearty scoops of ice cream afterwards. They sat on the back porch looking up at the stars. “What movie should we watch?” Steve broke the silence.

Bucky shrugged. “I’m not sure. What do you want to watch?”

Steve shrugged, thinking, before an idea came to Bucky’s mind. “Steve! We should watch Mulan!”

“Yesss!” Steve jumped up and ran inside the house, motioning for Bucky to follow him. 

Steve lead Bucky to the living room, where he switched on the small tv and DVD player. He had the movie pulled up pretty fast, and he and Bucky settled in to watch it. 

They were quiet, for the most part, until it came to the part where Li Shang began to sing ‘Make a Man Out of You’, were, understandably, they both began to sing very loudly and very off key, until the song ended and they both collapsed into a fit of giggles on the couch. 

After Mulan, they ended up watching Tangled, singing along to both ‘I Have a Dream’ and ‘When Will My Life Begin’ (they most certainly did not make plans to have a Disney marathon sometime in the near future they did not), before deciding to go to bed and end the night.

Bucky and Steve fell asleep in Steve’s small bed, arms and legs tangled together, and sweet Sarah Rogers peeked in on them before going to bed herself, and smiling knowingly, carefully closing the door.


End file.
